Surf Shoulders… Keep em’ Strong. Clearly, if your shoulders aren’t moving well, cause you pain, or are out of optimal alignment, then your surfing is going to be a pain in the shoulder!! (hahaha… get it, “pain in the shoulder”, rather than “pain in the ass”… I’m so clever and witty). Surfing Shoulder Training… here’s my take on keeping your shoulders moving.
With this post I want to give you some ideas of decent things to do with your shoulders, and give you some throwbacks to previous posts that go over maintaining a healthy shoulder complex.
One of the biggest points of concern with surf shoulders is making sure you’re in proper alignment. Tissue work, tissue work, tissue work. Get out the lacrosse ball or tennis ball, and start mobilising tissue. Tight muscles and crappy upper body posture will tear apart a shoulder joint.
Those surfers out there reading this that sit at a desk most of the day…. you’ve got to utilise some tissue work. That’s likely more important than endurance training, because if you’re trying to train a joint complex that is out of alignment, you’re very likely doing more damage.
So read all the surfing shoulder training rawness below, learn some top exercises for strengthening your upper body, learn how to improve flexibility, and improve the way your upper body moves in the surf.
Dynamic Balance Training.. and Shoulder External Rotator Training.
Improve your dynamic balance (indo-board if you’ve got one!), build some shoulder endurance, and improve the strength of your posterior rotator cuff, and your lower trapezius. Damn near everyone has super-weak-lame lower trapezius muscles.
This muscle is extremely important as it contributes to upward rotation of the scapula, which allows for optimal movement of the glenohumeral joint… if it ain’t movin’ properly then things are gonna be pissed in your shoulder.
Posterior Shoulder Endurance – Paddle Man!!!!
Since most people are all gnarly-hunched over, with forward rotated / protracted shoulders, the posterior shoulder muscles are stretched, weak, lame, weak, lame, and lame. So you ought to improve the work capacity of these muscles, and not have lame posterior shoulder muscles.
Read a bit more about these, and get some details of the movement here… I also throw in more Tissue Work, which you very likely need. SURF SHOULDER EXERCISES
Make Sweet Shoulder Love to a Tennis Ball … Kinky
Mobilise Tissue, get it moving properly, restore optimal range of motion, get flexible… these are good things. If your shoulders are restricted in movement, then you are literally just waiting and asking for a shoulder problem.
Release some tissue so you can have happy, strong, durable, and flexible shoulders. I also have radically giant hair in the video.
Check out the article HAPPY SURF SHOULDERS. I give you more anatomical insight, a FULL UPPER BODY WARMUP (great for those of you with cranky shoulders to use before you surf or train), and give you a Rotator Cuff specific movement.
The Whole Scha-Bang.. Upper Body Endurance Circuit
I have a moustache in this video, which is reason enough to watch it.
Surfing Paddle Endurance Circuit – Upper Body Metabolic Circuit .. Read this for a bit more detail regarding what you’re aiming to accomplish with this circuit.
There Ya’ Go!!!! That’s a ton of info, but really damned good info. Please just use it. Even if you pick just one thing, try it out, and see if it works for you. Help your body and help your surfing.
If you want the details, the process, the step by step guide, the full program, of how to incorporate all this together into a program that will build your body specifically for surfing… check out SURF TRAINING SUCCESS
SURF TRAINING SUCCESS is the step by step, 3 Phase Surf Fitness Training program I’ve developed to help surfers improve their body, become more athletic, improve flexibility, ramp up core strength, and train their body for surfing.
Check it out…Â you will improve your surfing if you have a stronger body… just don’t waste your time with useless training. Surf Training Success will show you exactly what you need to do to quickly improve the way you move, so you can improve your surfing.
LASTLY: EAT YOUR VEGGIES!!!!
-gotta give credit to my buddy Geoff Swann for the surf pic at the top of the page. Great photographer.. check him out at thegeoffswan.tumblr.com/
Grab the Surf Athlete Program & Enhance Your Surfing & Health Today…and Forever
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